Interactive pet toys are becoming increasingly popular. It is well known in the field that there are many benefits attributed to a pet toy that may stimulate an animal. As an example, the physical and mental health of a pet may be improved with interactive toys that cause a pet to be productively engaged with the toy.
Pet toys that dispense treats are commercially available in myriads of configuration. By regulating the intensity and length of time an animal is occupied, the animal may be less prone to engage in negative behaviors. For example, a pet toy that dispenses treats while the owner is away is likely to pacify the pet from foraging food and engage in a destructive behavior in its living space.
While treat dispensing pet toys are generally known, many shortcomings of the prior art are not yet addressed in the field. One issue is the inability to sanitize the inner parts of the toy because of the construction of the toy. Other disadvantages with the prior art is that the toy cannot regulate the rate of the treat being dispensed relative to the pet's attention. For an example, a hungry pet may be aggressively seeking every piece of the treat contained within the toy, while a disinterested pet may not even touch the toy without other motivations to do so. Because of these issues, pet toys from the prior art require a large degree of human supervision in order to be optimal and safe to use with pets.
Another issue that has not been addressed in the prior art is providing a motorized toy and treat dispenser present in the same device. In addition, pet toys involving motorized parts are notoriously difficult to clean unless the motor can be removed from the toy for cleaning. Therefore most automatic feeders are stationary designs where the feeder dispenses food from a chamber to a pet bowl, and are not designed for the pets to interact with the feeder.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a pet toy and treat dispenser that can entertain a pet for a few hours with minimal human supervision, and is relatively easy to clean and maintain.